UFC 208 free full fight video: Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen 2

Get the Full StoryBefore Anderson Silva fights Derek Brunson at UFC 208, watch Silva s dramatic TKO win over Chael Sonnen at UFC 148. It s been almost five full years since Anderson Silva s last successful defense of his UFC middleweight title. On July 7th, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada, The Spider fought arch-nemesis Chael Sonnen in one of the most highly anticipated rematches in UFC history. Sonnen famously dominated Silva at UFC 117, only to lose by submission with less than two minutes to go in the fight.

The rematch started out with Sonnen shutting down Silva s offense, taking him down in just five seconds, and winning the opening round 10-8 on one of the official scorecards. Round 2 is really what you re looking for, as you had Silva s egregious grabbing of Chael s shorts, Chael s disastrous spinning backfist attempt, the questions over whether or not Silva s knee landed on Chael s head or his body while he was downed, and then Sonnen getting knocked down for the first and only time in his UFC career and eventually TKO d.

You can watch the video at the top of the page. Here s Brent Brookhouse s play-by-play of the second round:

Round 2 - Sonnen pushing Silva to the cage now and throwing some knees to the body while Silva holds on. Sonnen drops down looking for the takedown, it's not there so he comes up. Sonnen with a few punches and Silva tags him a few times. Silva trying to get cocky and Silva with a huge illegal knee after Sonnen slipped to the ground. Chael got up eventually and then Silva dropped him again. That looked like an illegal knee that started it all, replay is needed here. Actually, the replay makes the knee look legal. So...there ya go. Anderson Silva wins by TKO strikes , round 2.

Here s how the BE community reacted before and after the legality of the knee was confirmed:

Silva hasn t won a middleweight bout since beating Sonnen. He ll look to end that streak this Saturday, as he faces Derek Brunson in the UFC 208 co-main event in Brooklyn, New York.